Sxmpra

While his identity has been shrouded in mystery since emerging in 2018, cult-favourite phonk rapper Sxmpra is an enigmatic force in the underground rap world letting his music speak forcefully for him. Born in Hamilton and currently based in Wellington, New Zealand, SXMPRA’s childhood was spent constantly moving between small-town New Zealand cities and Australia, but the one thing that remained steady for the artist throughout his formative years was the internet allowing him unlimited access to the underground rap and nu-metal worlds that would later inform his artistry today as Sxmpra. While he’s currently the fastest streaming rapper in New Zealand, Sxmpra never saw himself pursuing music as a career, and instead was pursuing a career in film after studying the creative medium at university. While his priorities have changed in recent years, Sxmpra background in the visual world is deeply integrated into his art as a rapper, giving him a strong foundation of creative control with his own music videos while applying the dark, eerie, and ominous elements of old horror movies like Rob Zombie’s Halloween into his own gothic aesthetics. Sxmpra’s stage name references the Harry Potter spell “sectumsempra”, “sectum” being a Latin verb translating as "severed”, while “sempra” is derived from the Latin word "semper," which means "continuously”. Like his moniker implies, Sxmpra music is a razor-sharp, swift strike of underground hip-hop set to hex and haunt the world.

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